By Nita Bhalla
FERNEY VALLEY, Mauritius (Reuters) – Nestling at the foot
of Mauritius’s east coast Bambous mountains, Ferney Valley is a
thick canopy of lush vegetation, hiding some of the world’s
rarest plants and animals within its depths.
Soaring ebony trees draped with lianas, orchids and vines
dominate fragrant forests where endangered tropical birds fill
the air with shrieks and squawks and spring waters feed unique
flora and fauna.
Unchanged since the first European settlers arrived more
than 400 years ago, Ferney Valley is one the last remaining
indigenous forests on the Indian Ocean island.
However, environmentalists say the forest is under threat
as construction gets under way to build a highway through it,
primarily to service the island’s lucrative tourism industry.
“Given the tiny amount of good quality tropical forest
remaining on Mauritius, this development can only be viewed as
catastrophic to the native biodiversity,” says Achim Steiner,
director-general of the World Conservation Union.
The aim of the 25-km (16-mile) South Eastern Highway is
primarily to promote tourism, by providing a shorter route from
the airport to east coast resorts for the thousands of visitors
who flock to palm-fringed Mauritian beaches every year.
Tourism is a key economic pillar for the tiny island of 1.2
million people, host to more than 700,000 tourists a year.
LONG AND WINDING ROAD
With sugar and textile exports threatened by liberalised
trade laws, the island wants to fully exploit its tourism
sector which generated 23,448 million rupees last year — a
20.8 percent rise compared with the previous year.
“At the moment there is only one main road from the airport
along the east coast, which is a long, winding and often
congested and unsafe route,” says Sadruddin Diljore, divisional
manager of the Road Development Authority.
“The new highway will provide a better alternative route
and will support productive sectors of the economy and promote
tourism.”
Opponents of the $19 million project, funded by the African
Development Bank, argue that the government could upgrade the
existing coastal route or investigate alternative routes which
will save Ferney Valley and benefit poor local communities.
About 60,000 people live in fishing villages on the east
coast, yet the area remains one of the island’s most
under-developed, with low incomes and high unemployment.
“If the existing road was upgraded or another route going
through the villages was considered it could benefit local
people who could set up cafes, shops and restaurants,” said
George Ah Yan, president of the Mahebourg Citizens Welfare
Organization, a local community group.
“No one stays in Ferney Valley, so it would not benefit
anyone to put a road there,” he adds.
However, the government says upgrading the existing road
would mean a costly relocation of communities, adding that
abandoning the Ferney Valley route would incur contractual
penalties of $1 million — a hefty sum for a country with a
budget deficit of five percent of gross domestic product.
NOISE, LITTER, FUMES
Since the first Europeans arrived on the island in 1598,
the natural habitat has gradually been devastated by human
habitation, the introduction of alien plants and animals, sugar
cane cultivation and tourism.
Only 1.6 percent of the original forests remain and the
World Conservation Union has ranked Mauritius, off East
Africa’s coast, as having the third most endangered flora in
the world.
Scientists estimate more than 100 endemic plant and animal
species are now extinct, including the island’s most famous
symbol, the dodo, a large, flightless bird which became extinct
in the late 17th century because of over-hunting and habitat
destruction.
Other extinct species include bats, reptiles, and birds
such as the solitaire and the Mauritius blue-pigeon. The island
has more threatened species per unit of area than any other
country.
Environmentalists say Ferney Valley is vital for the
survival of threatened flora and fauna and is home to six
species of critically endangered trees, including the Eugenia
Bojeri, Pandanus Macrostigma, Pandanus Iceryi — trees assumed
extinct until their discovery a few months ago.
The forest is also home to half the world’s population of
Mauritius kestrels, once the world’s rarest bird. From near
extinction in the 1970s, its population has grown to almost
1,000 as a result of a captive breeding programme in Ferney
Valley.
Authorities say less than one percent of the 700 hectares
(1,730 acres) of forest will be removed by the road, adding
they will mitigate any damage by replanting four times as many
trees.
Opponents of the project say losing even a tiny fraction of
the original forest will be detrimental in the long term.
“We have to think about what will happen in the years to
come with the toxic fumes of cars, noise and litter that the
road will bring,” says Yan Hookoomsing, vice-president of
Nature Watch, a local environmental group campaigning against
the project.
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